Friends of the band

Magnet #129 - Duran Duran

A girl never forgets her first superstar crush. And for me, it was John Taylor of Duran Duran. Hell, to this day, I would totally run off with my Jaunty John (/tm 16 magazine) if he asked me to.

Outside of school, I had a group of friends who were huge Duranies. They were a couple of years older than me, which skewed me younger than the average D2 fan.

Which also meant that during school hours, I was pretty much the only 6th and 7th grader in love with these guys. I was the British invasion personified, running around with magazines and tapes and bandannas and singing "Planet Earth" and ooohing over Seven and the Ragged Tiger. In fact, I even remember being at a sleepover, and while everyone else was off snacking in the kitchen, or playing outside, I was the only one camped out in front of the TV anxiously awaiting the MTV world premiere of "New Moon on Monday."

And, twenty-odd years after that first cassette tape, I'm still buying their music, they're the majority of albums on my mp3 player, and they're the wallpaper on my cell phone. Oh, and I'm still going to their concerts.

I picked up this pin-now-magnet, two concerts ago - when the little fangurl in me squeed at finally getting to see them play MSG. Freakin' awesome. Back in 84, they had sold out several MSG dates, and it was the most rad place to see them, and my little tweenie self was never able to make it up here.

But nothing - and I do mean nothing - tops my last Duran Duran concert - last year, for the launch of Red Carpet Massacre. We went as (and I say with this with quite the hairtoss) friends of the band, names on the list and everything. Oh, be still my little fangurl heart.

And, so what if we didn't get backstage in the end - I'm thinking that perhaps maybe, that's a good thing.

For John, anyway.